Furniture

I know that it’s nowhere near Christmas I’m just getting caught up on a few items on my to do list. This is a project that we (my husband and I) have been working on for a long time. Starting with the day that I first saw our current house 4 years ago. When I first saw what would be Logan’s room before Logan was even an idea I knew that the space would be perfect for a built-in bunk bed. But first we needed to get the house, get pregnant, and have the baby. When Logan was born we put the crib in the “nook” and I patiently waited until he was old enough to make the transition into a big bed which happened this fall. I wanted to build this about as much as a five-year old boy would want it. In September we went to Great Wolf Lodge and the boys spent their first night in a bunk bed.

That sparked Sasha to ask for a bunk bed for Christmas. After explaining that Santa doesn’t have room in his sleigh for a bunk bed, Stanko and I decided that it was time to build one in the “nook” in Logan’s room. We finished building it right before Christmas and Sasha promptly moved into Logan’s room. It took me the last 4 months to get it painted, hang the pictures, hem the drapes, and make more pillows.

I love that we have enough space so that the kids can be sleep together, apart, in the same room or in different rooms. If one of them is sick we can separate them into their own rooms, yet most of the time they opt to sleep together in Logan’s double bed. Sasha’s room goes unoccupied almost all of the time so it’s fair game for visitors.

My kids are my inspiration for most of my projects. The following items can be found in Logan’s room.

Like this:

In the spring I made some outdoor poofs to be used on the deck. When they migrated indoors for the winter the colours didn’t jive with the indoor decor, so I knit one of them a winter coat. I don’t need any extra seating for the holidays because I am a bit of a chair junkie. But the kids like the knit poofs and they are slightly more sophisticated than bean bag chairs. I made this one using Red Heart Grande in Oatmeal which might be my new favorite yarn. I made up the pattern as I went, and knit 6 squares which I sewed together. The pattern is a K4, P4 basket weave.

Like this:

Both kids were playing with the train table TOGETHER last week without fighting, so I thought I would share it. I can’t take full credit for this one though, because apparently Santa and his elves made it. On Christmas morning this train table materialized in the living room, and according to Sasha Santa and his elves built it for him the night before. Why should I to correct him?

Lucky for me I work for a furniture company, and there are often table tops up for grabs. My husband has other thoughts about how lucky we are to get free furniture, because we have quite a collection. For example this table top used to be our dining room table years ago, and I have been saving it just in case it might come in handy. The size (30″x48″) was perfect for a train table. Maple veneer might be a little fancy for a train table, but it has been in operation for 6 months, and still looks like new especially considering that a number of the pieces have been torn off, and glued again. Being that we have to see the train table everyday (our playroom is open to the kitchen) I wanted something relatively inoffensive looking and we had the top and the legs so FREE is good too.

It took a little time to plan out the tracks to get all of the pieces onto the table. Once we were happy with the layout, my husband and I hot glued all of the pieces in place. Most of the buildings we had already, but we added a couple of new (used) pieces. For anyone that is familiar with Thomas & friends wooden railway you know that the pieces are stupid expensive, but I will tell you that most of the pieces came from a Chapters Indigo 50% off sale a couple of years ago, some are from IKEA and the rest came from a local used Thomas store.

It took us a couple of hours to put this together, but we have saved tons of time that we used to spend building tracks and picking up trains. Forget the store-bought train tables, grab an old table and a glue gun and get busy.

Like this:

It was only a matter of time before I married knitting and furniture making. I have seen these types of pillows or poofs before but they were always quite expensive, so I figured I would try to make one myself. So to make this knitted green poof I created a round canvas form and filled it with bean bag filling and hand stitched it closed. I then knit a long rectangle and wrapped it around the canvas form. I stitched the ends of the knit rectangle together on the short ends and then gathered the top and bottom by hand stitching.

Cast off leaving a couple of yards of yarn to sew and finish ends, I used the entire ball except 12″

Canvas Pattern:

Using one 34″ x 63″ piece of canvas cut out the shape below. Sew the sides of the triangles together to form a circle. Cut out a circle out of canvas for to reinforce the top and bottom. See picture of the finished canvas form for clarity.

Like this:

It’s funny that a piece of furniture can make me feel like a grownup. I own a house, and have two kids yet what really makes me feel as though I am all grownup is a headboard. I moved out of my parents house when I was 18, and have been headboardless ever since. Until just a little while ago.

I love to make things out of garbage, you know freecycle, upcycle, recycle, what ever the trendy name is for making things out of trash. So as I was laying in bed one night headboardless very pregnant with baby number two, I thought maybe I can just whip up a headboard. Driving to my midwife appointment the next day I saw a pair of saw horses that would be perfect to use as a stand as I worked on the headboard, so I pulled over to the side of the road and popped them in the back of the car…score one for me. As I began on my headboard building journey I was quickly reminded that at 9 months pregnant there would be no whipping up of anything, I was lucky to get out of bed, never mind making a part of one. With nothing but good intentions the headboard was put on the back burner, until my little guy was 3 months old and I felt like a human again. Then I was back at it, with a little paint, a little bit of trim, an old door, some inexpensive lights, and a little bit of hardware I made a headboard and became a grownup.

We have a very intimate relationship with furniture, we sit on it, we eat on it, we work with it, we sleep with it, we make babies in it (or practice making babies), we rock those babies in it yet so many people just see it as a prop. I love my relationship with furniture, and even after we move from this house I will take the headboard that I made out of the old door from Logan’s nursery into my next house with fond memories of another time.